The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Thursday, April 10 that his government “transferred many troops to Panama”, a country with which he signed an agreement that raises the US military presence.
“We have moved many troops to Panama and we have occupied some areas that we no longer had, but now,” Trump said in the White House, along with the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who returned from an official visit to the Central American country.
On Wednesday, during Heghseth’s visit to Panama, both countries signed a security memorandum that increases US military presence in that country.
“We are recovering control over the channel (from Panama),” said Hegseth this Thursday during a cabinet meeting chaired by Trump.
The head of the Pentagon denounced that China had “too much influence” on the interoceanic route, something that previous US administrations facilitated, as he said.
“We, along with Panama, are expelling them. So we had a very successful trip,” said Hegseth, who defined the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino, as a “great ally.”
Panamanian Chancellor Javier Martínez-Facha, said Thursday that the Memorandum on the US military presence is “temporary” and that it respects the Treaty of Neutrality of the Canal and the National Constitution, so it does not contemplate the installation of military bases of the United States.
“This government has been clear: there is no assignment of sovereignty, there is no exclusive use of anything and what we have signed is temporary,” said the Foreign Minister during an interview with the Radial Program Panama live.
Since he returned to power, Trump has threatened to recover control over the Panama Canal, a road that was built and administered by the United States until it was ceded to the Central American country in 1999, in retaliation for the use that China makes of the infrastructure.
Specifically, the US administration wants to reverse the presence of a Hongkonese operator in two of the five ports located around the channel.